I am now back enjoying my retirement after being laid off from my part time job at the beginning of June. It appears that the online Art Market is not as buoyant as the management thought it was. It also turned out that the Company's new "Highly talented team from London" were not as talented as they thought that they were and we were led to believe. Actually I could see the writing on the wall several weeks before they got rid of me and some others because we had less work than we had at the same time in previous years.
My lay off coincided with the completion of the building work at home, knocking the Kitchen and Dining room into one to form a large Kitchen/Diner. So the day after Phil the builder moved out (after doing a fantastic job) I started painting and decorating in earnest completing the job a couple of days before our holiday.
On 20th June Mrs C and I drove to Italy with her sister and husband for ten days in a villa on the shore of Lake Como. If anybody has been to Lake Como they will realise that when I say on the shore what I really mean is 238 very steep steps up from the shore, which proved to be a good workout for the legs at least twice every day. This is the first time that we have been to the Italian Lakes and it was well worth the visit, the scenery, local people and food were all fantastic. The italian way of driving was really something to be seen (from a distance) I'm surprised that the roadside isn't littered with wrecked cars and bodies.
We Arrived back from holiday in the early hours of Monday morning after a fifteen hour drive through Switzerland and France (luckily I was only a passenger on this occasion). This was a week ago, I then spent last week preparing the house for a Murder Mystery dinner which we hosted last Saturday evening.
The crime scene was set at a barn supper on a ranch in the days of the old wild west and the victim was apparently the ranch owner. The new kitchen/diner was decorated with bunting, flags, wanted posters etc to give it the appearance of a Western barn. All the guests turned up in character dressed up to the nines as Cowboys, Saloon girls, Gamblers, Red Injuns (sorry Native Americans) and just like on 'Bonanza' there was also a Chinese cook. As usually happens on these occasions we all ate and drank much to much but still somehow managed to solve the crime. It turned out that I was the Murderer!
My friend Big Chief Red Feather (Aka Neill) invited me to join him and some others to take part in the Three Peaks challenge later in the year which I foolishly accepted. So I have to get into some serious training. The challenge is to climb the three highest peaks in Scotland (Ben Nevis), England (Scafell Pike) and Wales (Mount Snowdon) within 24 hours. It is going to be a gruelling challenge which I'm fairly confident that we will be able to accomplish, although I'm not sure that we will be able to complete it within the 24 hours time limit. Better get some very serious training in then!
